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Via Appia Illustrata ab Urbe Roma ad Capuam...
Via Appia Illustrata ab Urbe Roma ad Capuam...
[by Carlo Labruzzi]
[Rome & London, n.d., c.1794.]
Oblong folio (510 x 700mm, 20 x 27½"), contemporary paper wrappers, fragment of original printed title-label preserved on upper cover; large etched title and eight plates only (of 24). Strong impressions with full margins. Water stain encroaching all leaves lower right, light soiling and spotting to plates, as usual. Wrappers and extremities somewhat tatty and chipped.
A collection of plates from the rare publication by watercolourist and printmaker Carlo Labruzzi (1748-1817), dedicated to antiquary Sir Richard Colt Hoare (1758 - 1838), who commissioned the project in 1789. Hoare invited Labruzzi to accompany him along the Appian Way, following the itinerary outlined by the Roman poet Horace in his description of a journey made to Brindisi in 38 BC. Labruzzi was to make drawings of the remains of the ancient tombs and villas along their route. In the event the enterprise was cut short by inclement weather and Labruzzi's ill health, but 226 pen-and-wash drawings were completed and bound into 5 volumes by Colt Hoare. A second set of drawings, which are less highly finished and perhaps served as preparatory studies, were kept by Labruzzi. Labruzzi did not provide a purely topographical record of the Classical remains but represented the overgrown ruins in a picturesque and idealized manner. The monuments are brought into closer proximity for compositional effect. Publication of the drawings was begun by Labruzzi, who engraved 24 of the plates himself. The BM holds some of Labruzzi's original studies. Views of architectural and sculptural antiquities on the Appian Way, one of the earliest Roman roads; each captioned in English and Italian. The Via Appia connected Rome to Brindisi, Apulia, in southeast Italy. The road is named after Appius Claudius Caecus, who completed the first section as a military road to the south in 312 BC during the Samnite Wars. Plates numbered lower right: herewith 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 & 12. Italian library blindstamps to all leaves lower right.
See BL 1899.g.32.
[Ref: 21946]   £1,250.00   view all images for this item
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